F1: Seb, Kimi and Romain makes an all Renault podium

After the domination of Mercedes-powered cars in China, it is now Renault’s turn to have a clear sweep of the podium. But I’m running ahead of myself for what was definitely an uncharacteristic Bahrain Grand Prix.

Recall that Bahrain did not host the Formula One GP last year due to civil unrest in the nation. This year, however, the show continued in spite of what was happening beyond the boundaries of the racetrack.

Politics aside, Bahrain is also infamous for being dry in overtaking opportunities, as exampled so clearly during the 2010 season. Then again, the cars did not run with DRS in the 2010 season and KERS was not widely used till last year. I don’t have to say that this year was different. With both technologies in full effect, we now have four different winners in four different races; no one have a firm grip on the throne yet.

Red Bull Racing looked to have lost the momentum at the start of the season. And it took the Austria-licensed team with Sebastian Vettel three races before they could sit on pole, and continued on to grab the chequered flag. No mean feat because his rear view mirrors were kept frozen by the avalanche-like pace of the Iceman. Only a well-placed race strategy and crisp pitstops kept Vettel constantly in the lead. His teammate was not as fortunate. Mark Webber, who started third on the grid, lost his position to Grosjean and finished fourth.

Surprising finishers on the podium came from Lotus F1 Team – Kimi finished in second and Romain was placed third. This is the Frenchman’s first podium finish in Formula One. Blistering pace off the starting grid and pure hard work through the first set of corners set a beachhead that both drivers could mount an assault on in the later stints.

Romain started in seventh and meteorically shot into second position. Kimi gained four places up to seventh before clinically carving through the pack and found himself behind his teammate. A few laps later, Kimi swapped places with Romain. From then on, Kimi kept hounding the young German, never letting him rest his pace right till the chequered flag.

While McLaren-Mercedes started strongly, Hamilton in second and Button in fourth, things went horribly wrong for them. Hamilton suffered wheel nut problems in two of three pitstops, costing him precious seconds and even more valuable positions. He finished eighth. Jenson had a stronger race but a puncture at the closing forced him to pit, only to have an outlap that picked up what seems to be a problem with the exhaust at Lap 55 made the Brit park his car in the garage permanently.

Even Rosberg reported issues with his Mercedes but kept moving and secured fifth. Schumacher started in 22 due to a gearbox change and finished in seventh. For Rosberg, the story does not end. In two separate occasions during the race, Rosberg forced Hamilton and then Alonso experience the excursions off the racing track. The stewards will investigate the racing incidents after the race.

It could be said that Ferrari had an interesting race. Alonso, who started ninth, improved two places to finish in seventh. But it took the former world champion to squeeze every bit of performance from the car, to find tenths of seconds from the racing line and drive to the limit of the rules. Massa also found some speed in Sakhir. He started in 14 and finished in ninth.

Paul di Resta of Force India finished sixth, making a two-stop strategy work in his favour.

The 2012 Formula 1 season now takes a break before the Spanish GP in Catalunya starts on the second week of May. The break is important because it gives the teams the chance to update their cars with new parts that they hope could earn them a few extra seconds.

Chris Ng believes that all cars are made equal, and each one has its own unique story to tell. As such, the ex-advertising man is here doing what he truly loves, which is authoring the allegories and anecdotes of automobiles. Having served time in a motoring mag, he believes there's nothing more sublime than keeping the pedal floored and things burbling in top gear.

They pull the plug because of the DRB. It was DRB decision…period..got nothing to do with Proton’s CEO. If it was Syed Zainal decision, then he must be the most dumb CEO because no one get involve in F1 extensively for just 1 year. Even losers team like Tony Fernandes stay on.

Soon, they are going to sell Lotus. Actually, they want to offload it now but the Govt interfere because they want sell it to China company and the British govt protest it to Malaysian govt.

You don’t know how DRB work… they buy Proton at a very2 cheap price..dude. Even Lotus now worth at least RM600 million. I’m not surprise if the china company made RM1 billion offer judging by Lotus turn-over plan and model line-up.

This is how they work. They buy an asset at very cheap price, dismantle it, sell it part by part and reap off huge profit. Soon, Proton factory will be partly sold to VW and they will get more money.

Remember Augusta when Proton sell it @ 1 Euro? Then how Gevi SPA do the Augusta? How much Gevi made profit out of it?

They don’t even interested on how to turn Modenas into global bike player and now you expect DRB interested to turn Proton into global car player? In your dream dude.

Mark my word & you can see 3-4 years from now where is Proton globally. What I can see is they are re-badging 10 years old VW. So expect to get facelift 2012 Polo Sedan in 2020 with Proton logo.

Proton took God knows how many years being in automotive industry only able to start making something “self-proclaimed worth” to be named as a proper ” global sedan car” to compete globally, a lot of people gives thumb up, says it’s a major milestone for Proton, very good, bla bla bla…..but Caterham used only 2.5 years to build up all the facilities and car that can compete in F1 from scratch are called “Losers” here!!! How these people come up with this conclusion is really beyond my comprehension! Before anyone flame me, don’t get me wrong…i do like the new preve and i acknowledge Proton indeed had made some major improvement in their cars. I’m not bashing Proton just saying those “certain funny people” who are very biased towards some individuals or entity when commenting here

It doesn’t help we keep hearing bad rumours on what’s gonna happen to Proton and Lotus. Will DRB sell Lotus? Will DRB kick out DSSZ and Dany Bahar? If I’m Gerard Lopez (Genii), I’d be worried as hell too.

Some ‘independent’ F1 journalist reported DSSZ had resigned 3 weeks ago, but still the MD until replacement comes in. Similarly, Dany Bahar no longer has executive power anymore. DSSZ is reported to have visited China recently to deal with potential buyers willing to buy Lotus if DRB wants to sell it.

A little hard to swallow since this ‘independent’ guy openly admit he is a non-executive director at Caterham, eh? Also, DSSZ sure is free enough to visit China in the closing stage of launching Preve, hmm. Suuuure…

“INDEPENDENT” journalist is the biggest shameless scammer ever la…….
errrmmm…….wonder what do you called those “INDEPENDENT” press companies in Malaysia that been always saying only good things about P1 and MAS……????

Counting Webber in, it’s a top 4 Renault finish, very solid result for the French manufacturer!

Return of the finger, yeaa! This will surely shut down Vettel’s critics after a dismal performance in the first 3 races. If ever, it shows just how close the season this year, 4 races so far, 4 different winners. This year can probably top 2010 season, so unpredictable, so exciting!

Brilliant drive by Kimi! Saving 2 sets of fresh softs in qualif works well for the race, so close to getting the win, but Vettel proves that he is a proper world champion, with great defensive skills, so it’s kinda difficult after the one time Kimi tried but got into the wrong side. 2nd is the best he can achieve for now, n he delivered! There should be no more questions about his motivation for returning to F1 now, yeaaa!

Romain, great job! After 2 accidents in first 2 races, he’s able to score points in China, and now a podium! It’s amazing, very unreal to see him overtaking Webber and then Hamilton, but he did it, a very well done job! Now we can have more faith in his driving. A very fantastic race for RBR, Lotus n Renault!

A surprisingly bad result from the Mclaren, but just shows the season won’t automatically be a walkthrough for them after solid opening at Australia. As said earlier, makes this year much more exciting than last year.

Just a suggestion for Chris, at the end of every report, you can perhaps include driver’s and constructor’s standing so far for easy reference. Tq

Good job Kimi! How is the feeling for overtaking so many cars? Remind you some of your sweet memory in McLaren but with a more reliable car this time? :) So exited to see the flying fin crazily overtaking all the cars.

The strategy the team put on Kimi is always risky and challenging for the driver. Not many driver can turn this kind of strategy to good result. Kimi definitely one of them, another one is Alonso I think.

Ferrari used to blamed it all on Kimi for not performing in their sh*t performance car for that particular year and pay him a hefty sum of money in order to change their driver to Alonso.But look what happens…..now Kimi kick Ferrari ar*e back on track as Ferrari produced yet another sh*t car this year! Since Alonso can’t perform this year, wonder are Ferrari going to do the same with Alonso and change to yet another driver???

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